IMAGE INPUT-OUTPUT APPARATUS AND METHOD, AND JOB EVENT-RECORDING SYSTEM

• US 20090231624A1
• Filed: 03/16/2009
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Saito, Shigemi
• Granted Patent: US 8,488,151 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.150
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title

Abstract

An image input-output apparatus capable of recording information enabling events of image data items output by output jobs to be tracked, while suppressing load on a network and a server. If an executed job is an output job, a job event of the output job is recorded in association with a job event of an input job in which image data used in the output job is input. If the job event is of an output job, the job event of the input job associated with the job event of the output job is transmitted to a server together with the job event of the output job, whereas if the job event is of an input job, and image data input by the input job is not used in any other job, the job event of the input job is not transmitted to the server.

Claims

1. An image input-output apparatus comprising:

a job execution unit adapted to be capable of executing input jobs concerning input of an image, and output jobs concerning output of an image;

a job event-recording unit adapted to record job events which are respective pieces of information concerning jobs executed by the job execution unit; and

a job event transmission unit adapted to transmit the job events to a server,

wherein if a job executed by the job execution unit is an output job, the job event-recording unit records a job event of the output job in association with a job event of an input job in which image data used in the output job is input, and

wherein if the job event is a job event of an output job, the job event transmission unit transmits the job event of the input job associated with the job event of the output job to the server together with the job event of the output job, whereas if the job event is a job event of an input job, and image data input by the input job is not used in other job, the job event transmission unit does not transmit the job event of the input job to the server.

2. The image input-output apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the job is the input job, the job event-recording unit records job attributes and image data as the job event, whereas if the job is the output job, the job event-recording unit records job attributes and reference information on the input job as the job event.

3. The image input-output apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the job event is a job event of the output job, the job event transmission unit determines whether or not a job event of an input job associated with the job event has been transmitted to the server, and if the job event has been transmitted, the job event transmission unit transmits only the job event of the output job to the server.

4. The image input-output apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a job event-deleting unit adapted to delete ones of job events recorded by the recording unit, the ones having been transmitted by the job event transmission unit.

5. The image input-output apparatus according to claim 4, wherein if image data recorded in the image input-output apparatus by an input job is deleted, and at the same time the job execution unit has not executed an output job using the image data, the job event-deleting unit deletes the job event of the input job, whereas if image data recorded in the image input-output apparatus by an input job is deleted, a job event of an output job associated with a job event concerning the input job has been recorded by the job event-recording unit, and at the same time the job event of the output job has not been transmitted by the job event transmission unit, the job event-deleting unit does not delete the job event of the input job.

6. The image input-output apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a job condition-recording unit adapted to record job event-recording conditions indicating types of jobs which are targets to be recorded as job events,

wherein if a type of a job executed by the job execution unit satisfies the job event-recording conditions which are recorded in the job condition-recording unit, or the job is an input job which generates image data usable by the output job, the job event-recording unit records a job event of the job, whereas if not, the job event-recording unit does not record the job event of the job, and

wherein the job event transmission unit transmits job events of jobs of the types which satisfy the job event-recording conditions recorded in the job event condition recording unit, to the server.

7. The image input-output apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a relation/no relation-determining unit adapted to determine whether or not image data generated by an input job has a possibility of being output by an output job,

wherein if a job executed by the job execution unit is a job of a type which satisfies the job event-recording conditions recorded in the job condition-recording unit, or is an input job which is determined by the relation/no relation-determining unit to have a possibility of being output by an output job, the job event-recording unit records the job event.

8. A job event-recording system comprising:

an image input-output apparatus comprising;

a job execution unit adapted to be capable of executing input jobs concerning input of an image, and output jobs concerning output of an image;

a job event-recording unit adapted to record job events which are respective pieces of information concerning jobs executed by the job execution unit; and

a job event transmission unit adapted to transmit the job events,

wherein if a job executed by the job execution unit is an output job, the job event-recording unit records a job event of the output job in association with a job event of an input job in which image data used in the output job is input, and

wherein if the job event is a job event of an output job, the job event transmission unit transmits the job event of the input job associated with the job event of the output job together with the job event of the output job, whereas if the job event is a job event of an input job, and image data input by the input job is not used in other job, the job event transmission unit does not transmit the job event of the input job; and

a server comprising a job event-recording unit adapted to receive and record job events transmitted by the image input-output apparatus,

wherein the job event-recording unit records the job event of an output job and the job event of an input job in association with each other.

9. An image input-output method comprising:

executing input jobs concerning input of an image, and output jobs concerning output of an image;

recording job events which are respective pieces of information concerning executed jobs; and

transmitting the job events to a server,

wherein if the executed job is an output job, the recording includes recording a job event of the output job in association with a job event of an input job in which image data used in the output job is input, and

wherein if the job event is a job event of an output job, the transmitting includes transmitting the job event of the input job associated with the job event of the output job to the server together with the job event of the output job, whereas if the job event is a job event of an input job, and image data input by the input job is not used in other job, the transmitting includes not transmitting the job event of the input job to the server.